I owned one and it was a reliable accurate rifle. Only one problem at round round 100 the upper reciever separated from the lower at the pivot point. I sent it back to Armalite they replaced it. They said they had a bad run or recievers. The sent me a new reciever. I sold the gun. The gun still is working good for the new ownder. My problem is little problems like this have been more the norm with Armalites quality control of late.
PAT

Nightcrawler

May 26, 2003, 04:44 PM

SWAT Magazine (a publication I trust) gave it a good review. A local shop had one for awhile....very light and handy. MUCH more totable than a comparative 20" AR-15, since the 180 has a more reasonable barrel weight for the kind of rifle that it is. (I'm I'm going to lug around more than eight pounds in a rifle, it's going to be FAL, M14, or Garand, okay? There's no reason a 20" .223 should weigh more than 8lbs.)

Dave Markowitz

May 26, 2003, 10:08 PM

One of my friends has an AR-180B. SWEET rifle. It feels nicer to me than the AR-15 and clones. It's on my list of things to eventually buy.

Badger Arms

May 27, 2003, 12:12 AM

The problem with plastic is that its brittleness grows exponentially with cold weather. In Alaska, you can often shoot when it's below zero. I read that Armalite did have a bad run of AR-180 lowers. This gun and the AR-15 both suffer from the "Hollywood" style of breaking the gun down for diassembly... you know... just like you are opening a break-action shotgun. The lower hits hard and this can easilly crack a plastic lower. This idiotic treatment of the gun can kill it with one opening or mistake if you acidentally let this happen. Another reason I prefer metal magazines to Orelite or Thermolds.

LeadPumper

May 27, 2003, 04:37 PM

Picked up one (of five) that a local store had here in Maryland about two months ago. I was very suprised to actually find one in this state where every cool firearm is regulated to death!

Anyhow, since I brought it home, I've cleaned it up and had one range session with it.

Overall it's lite and balances well. It points and swings easily, as any good flattop should. Sights are post front, (hard to adjust elevation with only two hands) and dual aperature windage adjustabe rear. The 'clicks' on the rear sight are verry mushy, and in fact some don't click at all. But that may just be my rifle. The front sight tower can move on you if you havn't read the instruction thoroughly and know how to correct this. I forgot and was shooting three feet to the right at 50 yards first time out.

It breaks open to clean easily enough, just don't let the upper receiver slip or it could smack the lower receiver hard enough to cause re-alignment problems. I'm sure Armalites gonna get a lot of calls on this one.

Accuracy is ok, I only sent 100 rounds of Winchester white box 55 gr down (all I had), but I did have that trouble with the sight tower. Feeding wasn't a problem and the cheapo 10 round mag Armalite provided worked well enough (for now).

In the future I plan on getting better mags, more ammo, and maybe a red dot on top.

That would be cool.

-LeadPumper

starfuryzeta

May 27, 2003, 09:27 PM

I was interested in the 180B until I noticed some sort of proprietary scope mount on top. Is there anything you can do about that, or do you have to put their specific mount on it?

Badger Arms

May 27, 2003, 09:36 PM

Armalite told me just the other day that they are still 'developing' the weaver base but that will be just an option with the proprietary mount being standard. When the gun was designed, weaver bases were not 'in vogue' as they are now since the advent of flat-top AR-15's with whiz-bang gadgets you can attach to every nook and cranny of the 'lightweight' rifle. One thing that CAN be done with the rail is that it can be drilled and tapped for a weaver mount if you want to go that way. The base wont' be quick detatchable but I'm sure you can mount it low enough that you can see over it. Just a thought.

Glock Glockler

May 28, 2003, 09:28 AM

Badger,

If a plastic/polymer receiver can be that weak in cold weather, why would you choose a G36 as your base for building the ultimate assault rifle?

On a side not, how do you think a Sig 550 would fare as a base?

Rangegod

May 28, 2003, 11:47 AM

Here's mine with a C-More on a B-square mount. This unit is quick detachable without tools and retains zero. The B-square unit is also less expensive than the Armalite mount and allows using any Weaver based sighting system.

Kor

May 28, 2003, 02:36 PM

Rangegod, could you tell me where and for how much $$ you got that B-Square AR180 scope mount?

I am VERY fond of my AR180B, and I have equipped it with Trijicon AR15 sights and a Rock River Arms match-grade AR15 trigger set - it runs like a champ with PMC, Federal and Georgia Arms .223 ammo.

A friend of mine, however, bought an AR180B on my recommendation and after handling mine, and his rifle will drop magazines after 2-4 shots - the recoil seems to jar the mag loose, irrespective of brand/make. We've tried it with Orlites, Brit steel mags, and GI aluminum mags using Georgia Arms ammo, and the mag just jumps loose by itself. I've even tried adjusting the mag catch inwards to increase the catch tension, to no avail. His rifle, however, is one of the first rifles produced - mine has no such problems, and is numbered about 1100 after his.

So, I would look for a late-production gun - check the serial-number plate on the receiver for coloring. Silver = late-production, black = early-production.

Handy

May 28, 2003, 02:50 PM

This is a neat rifle.

My only problem with it is that you can build an all metal AR15 for the same money and get a nicer constructed weapon. But, it would still be an AR15.

You can still buy the original AR180s for around $1000 on up. Preban, folding stock. But the mags are a little different (but adaptable from M16 mags).

Nightcrawler

May 28, 2003, 04:06 PM

My only problem with it is that you can build an all metal AR15 for the same money and get a nicer constructed weapon. But, it would still be an AR15.

Exactly, and, it wouldn't have any warranty or anything. AR-180Bs I think are meant to compete more with the Mini-14 than anything else, and they're certainly less expensive than Armalite's comparitve AR-15 clones.

Also, dare to be different! :)

Handy

May 28, 2003, 04:53 PM

I wouldn't say it doesn't have a warranty. It has two, one for the kit, one for the receiver. Unless whatever happens involves both, you should be covered.

Badger Arms

May 28, 2003, 05:56 PM

If a plastic/polymer receiver can be that weak in cold weather, why would you choose a G36 as your base for building the ultimate assault rifle?

While I'll be the first one to rap the polymer concept in terms of brittleness in cold weather, you'll also note that the G36 is significantly thicker in cross-section. I'll concede that an Aluminum or Stamped Steel upper would do the job better in that limited respect. One area I do NOT think should be polymer is the magazine feed lips. Glock knew this was a problem and designed steel inserts. I'm happy with a magazine housing being polymer, but steel inserts would make me happier.

I don't see any problem with molding steel inserts into the G36 receiver for pivot pins.

My main beef with the SIG is the weight. I've never handled or examied one, but I do like every other aspect of the G36 mechanically. Lend me a SIG for a few years and I'll give you my opinion! :D Until then, I'm gonna have to still give the thumbs up to the HK at this moment. If you've read my dissertations on the G36, you'll note that there are other things I fault with the gun. I guess that I really haven't thought the polymer thing through. On the whole, it's difficult for me to give any sort of real opinion on guns I've not handled. I've put the SL8 through its paces as well as the AUG, FAMAS (years ago) as well as countless more conventional arms. This served as my basis for HATING many of the features I find fault with there.

mrstang01

May 28, 2003, 08:59 PM

rangegod, what did the Bsquare mount cost, and where did you get it, if you don't mind me asking?

Michael

Mannlicher

May 28, 2003, 09:17 PM

I bought one back in early spring. Ordered it through my dealer in Gainesville.

My son had it for about a month, and shot it a lot. When I picked it up from him, it was still in like new condition.

Back here in Miami, I am up to almost a thousand rounds of WW white box ammo now. I have not had a single failure yet. Accuracy is as good, if not better than my Bushmaster, but not as good as my HBAR Colt. at first it shot way high, but adjusting the front sight fixed that. Groups fired offhand at 100 yards are about 3 inches now, off the bench, closer to 1.5 inch.

Fit and finish are acceptable. This is not a cosmetic masterpiece, but it is functional, and works.

The only gripe has been the lack of a decent optics mounting system. My gunsmith will attach a 1913 rail as soon as I can get it back up to Ocala. Then a Trijicon Reflex II will go on it.

For the money, it aint bad at all. I like mine a lot

Rangegod

May 29, 2003, 03:02 PM

The B-Square is listed here:

http://www.reliablehost.com/bsquare/modernmil_2.html

Part no. 18503 listed at $152.95

I got mine from http://www.hitach.com/ for $119 but that was about a year ago.